Christopher Whiteside MBE is Conservative County Councillor for the Egremont North and St Bees Division of Cumbria County Council. The division includes St Bees, Bigrigg, Wood End, Moor Row, part of the Mirehouse area of Whitehaven, and surrounding countryside.
He is also deputy chair (political and campaigning) of the North-West region of the voluntary wing of the Conservative party.
Chris lives and works in Copeland with his wife and family.

If you agree that it is essential to keep consultant-led maternity services at the West Cumberland Hospital - and also at FGH in Barrow (as important for people at the Millom end of Copeland, please make sure the NHS trusts know your views.

Tell them it is essential to act to improve recruitment and retention of doctors and midwives, and undertake the necessary measures recommended by the assessors to make sure this option works.

The Telegraph reports here that Dr Assem Allam, who has given £400,000 to the Labour party, nevertheless believes that David Cameron has the best economic policies.

He added that the Labour leader needed to stop demonising the wealthy and entrepreneurial.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Dr Allam said that Mr Miliband's plans to re-introduce the 50p rate and bring in a mansion tax risk "alienating" middle-class voters. He also said that Mr Miliband should take “lessons” from Margaret Thatcher in confronting the unions and supporting entrepreneurs.

Dr Allam, who owns Hull City football club, said that he likes the Conservatives economic policy and Mr Cameron, but compared some of Labour's flagship economic policies to those of a dictator.

He said that a recent threat by Len McCluskey, the head of the Unite union, to carry out illegal strikes under a future Conservative government should act as “wake up call” to Labour and Britain.

Dr Allam said:

“The only way to make everyone rich is to support the rich to be richer. If we carry on talking this language it is not in my opinion good for the future of the party. “We need to stop saying tax the wealthy, do this, do that, mansion tax, we need something different. Can someone convince me that without wealth creators we will do better as a nation? No. “The Conservatives have got a point, a strong point, which is their ability to manage the economy. "I think this is in the genes of the Conservative Party, their ability to get the economy of the country on the right track. In actual fact I believe they are the best party in Europe in managing the economy."

I can't accept that journalist's conclusion - that politicians will never please the public so they should stop trying - but I do think he had a point that what people think they want is sometimes incoherent and contradictory.

We say we want local choice and local democracy, but the instant it happens you can bet your last penny someone will start shouting "postcode lottery!"

We say we want politicians to be independent-minded rather than party puppets, but voters always penalise parties which are seen to be divided and the press always presents leaders who cannot get their policies through as weak and indecisive.

We say we want politicians to give us clear, straight answers to straight questions but all too often when they do the media start shouting "gaffe!"

He adds,
"The reaction to the prime minister’s third-term declaration is a good illustration of what’s wrong with British politics at the moment."

Mind you, as I have previously noted, the objection to DC giving a straight answer to a straight question did not come from ordinary voters: it came from journalists (with the exception of John Rentoul and David Mitchell himself) and from politicians.

This is the last time I will write about this subject, but I think the one additional comment which David Mitchell could have made is that it may indicate how out of touch the political and journalistic establishment is with the rest of the country.

And by the way, we need consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland Hospital: #SupportOption1.

"Please, just for a second, be like a normal human and talk to us, tell us what you think, tell us what you’re going to do! This is what we inwardly beg as a politician is asked something on TV or radio""So when a journalist asked the question “Would you go for a third term?” and the prime minister simply said “No”, you’d think that was worth a standing ovation.""It’s so exactly what we slag off and hate politicians for not doing. The smart money was on a “I don’t think now’s the time to be thinking that far ahead”, or, “That’s an issue that I’ll discuss with colleagues as and when the time comes”, or even a disingenuous, “Gosh, I haven’t really given that a lot of thought”.

"But Cameron did what his lot stereotypically never do and answered the bloody question. In two letters. Bravo."

The independent assessors who looked at Maternity services in Cumbria and North Lancashire reported that they had originally intended to recommend one huge maternity unit for the whole vast area.

Fortunately when they saw what the roads and transport links are actually like they changed their minds. It was reported that:

"While prior to their visit the assessors felt this was likely to be a preferred option, because of the benefits that such a larger unit with 5,000 deliverie...s would have for women and their babies, given the geography involved they did not think that this option could realistically be developed further."

Instead their preferred solution was Option One:

Option 1 - Four consultant-led maternity units at Carlisle, Whitehaven, Barrow and Lancaster. The immediate development of midwifery-led units at Carlisle and Lancaster, on the same site, or next to them.

But we cannot take for granted that this solution will be adopted, it is one of three options still under consideration and there are conditions being laid down.

That's why we must campaign to keep consultant-led maternity at all four sites and ‪#‎SupportOption1

The "North East and Cumbria" section of the BBC Sunday Politics show today covered the election for the first directly-elected Mayor of Copeland.

They filmed sections with all three declared candidates, and they did warn us that the clips used would probably only be a small proportion of the time filmed.

The broadcast is now available on BBC iPlayer.

I found it slightly disappointing that the BBC concentrated more the answers given by the candidates when they asked us about our personal experience qualities rather than anything much of what was said about specific policies. I am particularly disappointed that they did not have time to use what I said (or anything other candidates may have said) about the vital importance of West Cumberland Hospital. I for one stressed the importance of keeping all services and particularly consultant-led maternity provision at West Cumberland Hospital. (If you agree with this, please let the NHS Trusts know and tell them that on that basis you #SupportOption1.)

To give credit where it is due, I was pleased to be taken at my word that I wanted to talk about what they Mayor should actually do rather than about how much whoever gets the job should be paid, on which almost anything the candidates say is likely to bring politics further into disrepute. Instead they had the councillor who proposed the motion and a Time for Change campaigner to debate this.

I was also pleased, having asked to be filmed in a spot where magnificent views of Whitehaven Harbour could be seen behind me so that I could make the point about how beautiful the area is and how much scope to increase tourism, that the BBC did use some shots from that location which looked very good and cannot have done Copeland as a tourist destination any harm.

It was good that the BBC did give the mayoral election some publicity, but a slot lasting just a few minutes on TV could never really give full justice to the issues in the election. So over the coming 39 days it will be really important for all the candidates to set out our policies and give the voters enough information to decide. I have already set out some of my policies here on this blog and over the next few days I will publish the remainder: obviously that will only be part of my campaign and I look forward to meeting as many of the voters of Copeland as possible.

The Sunday Politics show today on the BBC is likely to include in the North East and Cumbria section a piece on the Mayoral election in Copeland.

They interviewed me about my campaign as the Conservative candidate to be Mayor of Copeland and, of course, also interviewed the other declared candidates.

I don't of course know how much of the interview material they will use for each candidate: I hope what they use from me will include the importance of keeping services in general and maternity in particular at West Cumberland Hospital. ‪#‎SupportOption1‬.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Today the formal election campaign - now known to political parties as the "short campaign" in recognition of the fact that we have in practice been campaigning for weeks - finally gets under way, with David Cameron launching the Conservative campaign in Manchester.

I think both I and a lot of other people are going to need to relax when we get home after a day's electioneering.

So I will be posting some relaxing music here to hit at about 9pm - roughly when I expect to get home from campaigning - each evening during the election.

We'll start with Mozart's 21st Piano concerto, sometimes known as "Elvira Madigan" because nearly fifty years ago the second movement of this wonderful piece of music was used in the soundtrack of a film by that name. I'd say there is a good chance that the name "Elvira Madigan" will be remembered mainly as a nickname for this piece of music long after the film is forgotten.

Meeting voters in Copeland over the last week and seeing some of the things posted on social media, there are a number of recurring themes which keep coming up.

The first two are undoubtedly the need to improve transport links and the need to keep services at West Cumberland hospital (for example, #SupportOption1) and there are several other concerns about local services, local shops, parking, better bin collection, recycling and so on which have been raised by many local residents.

And one of the top five messages which we keep getting in Copeland is concern that politicians are out of touch, combined with disgust with politics. Considering how politics has operated in Copeland for many years I'm not in the least surprised by this.

One extreme irony about this understandable concern about politicians is that it immediately creates a difficulty in solving the problem. Paradoxically, anyone who stands up and tries to do something about this will immediately be labelled as a politician in the eyes of many of the public and start getting some of the same flak.

A frustrating thing which comes with being a Conservative (or I presume Independent or other non-Labour) candidate or activist in Copeland is that you have to develop the ability to smile, keep your temper and give a positive response when you get repeatedly blamed for things your opponents have done and that you may well have fought hard against.

If you look around the country at the best and worst councils it immediately becomes apparent what is wrong with Copeland Borough Council: it is a particularly bad example of a problem which often happens when the same party is in power locally for far too long. I call it the "rotten borough syndrome."

Show me any of the worst run councils in Britain, and I'll show you a council which the same party has run with little or no interruption for decades.

Not quite all councils which one party has run for a long time are terrible failures, but all councils which are terrible failures have been run by the same party for years.

Even the most dedicated councillor or MP may not need prodding to make an effort but does need prompting to think outside the box and feedback to keep him or her aware of issues which may be coming up or things which may be going wrong. There is nothing which provides a more effective prompt than the need to seek re-election, especially when there is a real danger of losing.

If people are not afraid of the possibility of losing, if the same party or faction is re-elected year after year, there is a real danger of coming first to believe that nearly everyone shares their views, then that those who don't can be ignored. They you become complacent, arrogant, and develop "not invented here" syndrome, the belief that you know it all, and ultimately to treating the council and it's employees and resources not like something owned by the public for whom you are just the steward, but like a personal fiefdom.

That's what has gone wrong in Copeland.

Over the coming forty days I am going to be putting forward a positive vision of a better future for Copeland. I'm certainly not going to be vilifying all the Labour councillors and candidates, many of whom are nice people, most of whom sincerely want the best for the area.

But I do think that a change - e.g. a defeat for Labour - would not just be in the best interests of the people of Copeland as a whole. If it jolted Labour out of their complacency and arrogance and made them realise that they need to listen more to other people, it might even be in the interests of the best people in Copeland Labour party.

Today has been nicknamed "Super Saturday" by the Conservative campaign, and Conservatives all around the country have been working hard for the general election campaign. I was invited to go and campaign in half a dozen places, and to see David Cameron and George Osborne launch the Conservative Campaign in Manchester at Conservative Spring Forum.

Really sorry that the inability to be in all those places at once made it impossible for me to accept each one of those invites: I was with the Copeland Conservatives team in Whitehaven Town Centre this morning.

We had a friendly reception, especially for the petition we have started to keep consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland hospital, e.g. ‪#‎SupportOption1‬ Lots of signatures, and we will keep working on this, regardless of the result of the election, until the maternity unit's future is confirmed.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Hat tip to Guido Fawkes' blog here for a fascinating post called "The Tory Attack Ad Labour tried to block."

It features TV footage first broadcast in 1997. There is a link on Guido's post here to a Panorama archive page about how the Labour spin machine, and Damien McBride in particular, (remember him?) stopped Panorama from using the same footage in 2007.

As the 2010-2015 parliament comes to an end, it's members cease to be MPs and those who are seeking re-election become parliamentary candidates on a par with everyone else who is standing.

One of those stepping down is William Hague who has been Conservative leader, Foreign Secretary and whose final job in government up to and including today was Leader of the House of Commons.

One of William's last actions in that role was to move a motion yesterday providing for a vote on whether the Speaker of the House of Commons should be re-elected to be held by secret ballot.

I find it quite fascinating and more than a little horrifying that this proposal, which to me looks like an eminently sensible way to make the process more democratic and remove unhealthy influences such as fear of reprisals by a speaker or by the party whips, has been universally interpreted as an attempt to get rid of the present speaker. But that is not the purpose of this post.

What I find of interest and which may be of interest to my fellow electors in the Copeland constituency was an exchange which took place during questions to the Leader of the House about that motion, beginning with a question from the member for this constituency in the 2010-2015 parliament.

Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab): Does the Leader of the House not deserve better than to allow his political epitaph to be written by a lazy, cowardly, bullying, spiteful, vindictive Prime Minister, who is not fit to lace his shoes?

Mr Hague:Hon. Members have clearly had the thesaurus out this morning to find as many adjectives as possible, but I personally think that it is very important that this issue is decided.Jacob Rees-Mogg:On a point of order, Mr Speaker. What the hon. Member for Copeland (Mr Reed) has just said about the Prime Minister—calling him “vindictive” etc.—cannot be within the bounds of parliamentary discourse. I really object most strongly.Mr Speaker:Order. May I just respond to the hon. Gentleman as follows? My strong sense, and I do take advice on these matters, is that what has been said is a matter of taste— Order. If I felt the need of the advice of the hon. Member for Worthing West (Sir Peter Bottomley), I would seek it, but I am seeking to respond to the point of order. It is a matter of taste; it is not language that I would use, and it is certainly not language that the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) would use. I have responded to him, and I think that we should leave it there.

How very edifying.

And on a separate issue, make sure that Cumbria's NHS Trusts know that you want to keep consultant-led maternity at West Cumberland Hospital: #SupportOption1

It may surprise some people, though probably not the people who know me well, that I welcome the news that a third candidate has declared this week in the election for Copeland's first directly elected mayor.

Nominations formally open next week for all four elections - for MP, Mayor, CBC councillors and Town/Parish councillors - and close on 9th April. At this stage in Copeland there are five declared candidates for parliament (Conservative Stephen Haraldsen plus Labour, Green, Lib/Dem and UKIP candidates) and now three for Mayor (myself, Independent candidate Mike Starkie who announced his candidacy on Wednesday, and the Labour candidate backed by Elaine Woodburn and the existing failed administration which the voters rejected last year.)

So why on earth do I welcome more competition?

Because the whole point of having a directly elected mayor is to have someone running the council who has a mandate from all the voters of Copeland and is accountable to all the voters of Copeland. And without a strong field of candidates, that mandate is weakened.

A strong mandate will make it easier for the mayor to champion local causes like the need to keep consultant-led maternity at West Cumberland Hospital (#SupportOption1).

A competitive election strengthens that mandate.

The reason I was so horrified by certain recent decisions forced through Copeland Council by the Labour whips was not just the possible personal consequences for me, but that if there was a limited choice of candidates for mayor then the decision taken by the voters last May would have been sabotaged.

Obviously I would not have put my name forward unless I thought I was the best candidate for the job, and I would have withdrawn if I did not still think that. But I am not afraid of healthy competition and whoever does win will have a stronger mandate to deliver the change Copeland needs from having emerged from a genuine contest.

Hence I am pleased that there are at least three candidates. There may of course be more who emerge between now and 9th April.

If this was a "first past the post" election I would stop there, but it isn't. The ballot paper for Mayor will give each voter the opportunity to cast a "first preference vote" which will be counted first, and a "second preference vote" which might be taken into account but only if the voter's first choice candidate has already lost.

If someone gets a majority of the first preference votes (which in the election for Copeland Mayor is not likely) they will win outright on the first count.

Otherwise the two candidates with most votes go forward to a final round. The second preferences of the people whose first preference votes were cast for eliminated candidates will then be counted and the extra votes for each of the remaining candidates added to their totals, and the candidate whose revised total is higher becomes Mayor.

As we do not yet know whether there will be any more candidates coming forward it would be premature for me to make any definite comments yet about second preference votes, but the shape of the election at this point is becoming clear.

At this point there are two candidates with a positive view of the creation of the post of a mayor for Copeland, and one who was an officer of a trade union which spent it's members money unsuccessfully campaigning against it.

There are two candidates who want to reform Copeland, and one who is backed by the present, failed administration.

I look forward to the debate, which I hope will be positive and constructive, about who has the best ideas for the future of Copeland.

If you think it is essential to keep consultant-led maternity services at the West Cumberland Hospital, and for the NHS trusts to undertake the necessary measures recommended by the assessors to make sure this option works, please show your support by tweeting ‪#‎SupportOption1

Thought provoking "Heresy of the week" article from Peter Franklin at Conservative Home here about how politicians (and many other people) should get more sleep.

As someone who is sometimes guilty of not taking enough sleep myself I think he has a point. I was never able to track down the quote, which I think was by Winston Churchill, "Never take a major decision when you are tired, ill or drunk" but it is good advice.

The ancient Roman statesman Cato the Elder felt so strongly that Carthage must be destroyed that he ended every speech he made in the Roman senate, regardless of the subject, with words to that effect, sometimes quoted as "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" (Moreover, I consider that Carthage should be destroyed.) but most often as "Cathago Delenda Est."

I feel equally strongly that we must make sure the NHS Trusts adopt the preferred option for maternity services in Cumbria and keep consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland Hospital.

If we want to keep West Cumbria viable it is vital that all residents make the NHS trusts aware they have to run with this option, which is called option one.

That's why from now on until that option is agreed and confirmed, with all the necessary support to make it work, when I write and article on my blog or on Facebook, when I write a campaign leaflet, I will finish with these words: SUPPORT OPTION ONE!

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Assessors have recommended that the favoured option for maternity services in Cumbria and North Lancashire includes keeping consultant-led maternity services at West Cumberland Hospitals but we must campaign to make sure it happens.

There are six options: the one which keeps consultant-led maternity at WCH is Option One and we must campaign for this:

Sometimes a throwaway remark or a question of a few words tells you more about what's wrong with an organisation than an essay of a thousand words normally would.

This week I had an example when an officer of Copeland Borough Council asked me a question, and I thought afterwards that the fact that question was asked me this said everything you need to know about what the local Labour party are doing wrong in the way they run Copeland Council.

I had mentioned that if elected as Mayor it would be my intention to appoint an all-party executive to make use of the talents and abilities for all groups in the best interests of the people of Copeland. So that if, as now, there are three groups on CBC, I would offer places on the executive to both the other groups as well as to my own party.

I don't want to get anyone in trouble, so no names, no pack drill, but the officer asked me something along the lines of "Your party rules allow you to do that, then?"

You bet they do. In fact the Conservatives passed the Widdecombe legislation requiring many council committees to have seats for opposition groups reflecting the political composition of the council, although Tony Blair and John Prescott changed the law to exempt Council Cabinets from this requirement.

I thought afterwards, what does it say about the way Labour party rules have affected the running of Copeland Borough Council that an officer should think to ask that question?

2) Mayoral Election:vote to pick Copeland's first directly elected Mayor3) Borough council election: vote to pick the members of Copeland Borough Council4) Town and Parish elections, including the first election to the new Whitehaven Town Council

All of these elections are important, two are new, and all are hard to call.

And it is not enough to cast the right vote in just one or two elections. For example, if we get a good mayor elected who is committed to reform but the present ruling group retain a big majority on the council, that won't entirely block the ability of the new mayor to improve Copeland but it may limit scope for progress. It would be a disaster if Labour won a two-thirds majority on Copeland Council, although I don't believe that is going to happen.

Before moving to Copeland I was a member of the executive of a "hung" council where no party had a majority. Everything I achieved in that situation required cross-party working in the public interest and not just forcing things through on a party vote. I suspect that whoever becomes Copeland's new mayor is going to need that kind of skill, working with members of both political parties and with Independents.

I would relish that challenge, but the more good people get elected the easier it will be for whoever becomes mayor to work with them, so it extremely important to use your votes wisely in all the elections on 7th May.

Someone at the Conservative Campaign Centre (CCC) with a wicked sense of humour has noted that their opposite numbers in the Labour party appear to have forgotten to circulate any pictures of Ed Miliband, since virtually no Labour leaflets issued this year have carried such a picture.

To help out local CLPs who may be short of pictures of their leader, CCC is offering the following stock photographs free of charge ...

As North Cumbria's acute hospitals emerge from a very difficult week, there is some good news: a date has been set for the opening of the brand new refurbished facilities, and £3.2 million of capital spend has been allocated, including a CT scanner and two mobile x-ray units (These will be delivered after the new power supply has been installed.)

The handover of the new hospital was delayed after a fire in January which destroyed the new energy centre. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the rest of the new hospital was undamaged.

A report to the NHS trust board, which met yesterday, stated that phase one of the project now looks set to be completed in October

There is a very old joke about the fact that if the media and a politician's enemies and rivals refer to him as having made a "gaffe," it nearly always means he has been caught telling the truth.

When I heard that David Cameron had ruled out serving a third term as PM if he is re-elected on 7th May, my immediate thought was that this might have been better left unsaid.
This opinion was shared by virtually the whole of the political and journalistic class, with John Rentoul almost the only exception. (he saw it as "Vote Dave, Get Boris"). The MP for Copeland was one of many to poke fun at the PM for what he said.

Mind you, nobody thought Maggie Thather's "I want to go on and on" comment was a good idea either.

Yet here is the interesting thing. Could this be one of the issues where everyone else has a different view from those involved in politics and journalism?

The BBC reported at first that comments from members of the public were almost unanimously in support of David Cameron saying that two terms would be enough. Later in the day the comments were less unanimous (probably the very fact that people were reported as agreeing with a Conservative leader prompted those on the left to whom such an outcome is unacceptable to call in) but still on balance in favour.

The sort of comments people were making were that the only recent leaders to serve more than two terms - Mrs Thatcher and Tony Blair - both went on for too long, that nobody in their right mind would want to do the job of Prime Minister for more than ten years, and it was nice to see a senior politician give a straight answer to a question instead of ducking it.

All of which it is very difficult to argue with.

Maybe - just maybe - the electorate are a lot more perceptive than received wisdom among politicians and hacks gives them credit for?

I think it will be obvious to anyone who has spent more than five minutes reading this blog that I do not have a lot of time for the UK Independence Party or for their leader Nigel Farage.

Heaven knows that the pressure to explain your views in 10-second soundbites has been driving all parties towards overly simplistic solutions to complex problems, but UKIP's policies are oversimplified in the extreme and I find some of the comments from some of their candidates and officials to be at best foolish and at worst unpleasant.

I have a simple response to this - I will not be voting for them.

As UKIP has started shedding candidates and MEPs at a rate of knots over allegations of expenses-fiddling and racism, it had appeared that many other people were reaching the same conclusion.

How utterly daft then, that at the very moment that UKIP appeared to be on the verge of imploding, a bunch of intellectually-challenged bullies decided to turn Nigel Farage into a victim by staging a protest at the pub where he was eating Sunday lunch with his family.

By all means criticise Farage's foolish policies, but his wife and kids should be off limits. And I don't buy the argument that the protesters didn't notice that his family were there - there are photos of them surrounding his car and anyway they should have thought to check.

An attempt to justify the protest here by one of the organisers, a gentleman called Dan Glass, gives me the impression that Mr Glass is one of the few people in Britain who is even less in touch with reality than Mr Farage.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

"Since 2010, we've been working through our long-term economic plan to turn Britain around.
It hasn't been easy – we inherited a country on the brink of bankruptcy – and I know many of you will have made huge personal sacrifices to support our plan to mend the broken economy and secure a brighter future for this great nation.

But it's been worth it. That plan is working. Day by day, month by month, Britain's getting stronger: jobs are on the rise, the deficit's down, the economy's growing and wages are going further.

And there's more good news for family budgets, with the inflation figures announced today at a record low of zero per cent.

At a time when the world economy is increasingly unstable, these latest figures are a reminder that we're on the right track – and that doing things differently would put it all at risk.

It's a reminder that only the Conservatives have a plan to build a stronger economy, improve living standards and make families across Britain more financially secure.

We want to help hardworking people keep more of the money they earn. It is individuals – not governments – who know best how to spend their money.

That's why, in Government, we've cut income tax for 26 million by raising the personal allowance to over £10,000 – and we will go further in the next Parliament.

That's why we've frozen fuel duty for the longest time in 20 years, saving a typical family £10 each time they fill up.

That's why we've secured the biggest ever cash rise in the state pension, which will be £950 higher than it was in 2010.

Don't just take me by my word. Judge me by my record in Government: we've delivered 2 million quality apprenticeships in the past five years, and will deliver 3 million more in the next five – giving young people the skills to go out and get a well-paid job.

We're backing business, industry and enterprise – creating 1,000 jobs a day and driving down unemployment - now at its lowest level since 2008.

We're getting Britain building again, helping young people to own their own home. We've already announced 200,000 cut-price homes for first-time buyers under 40. And we will now help first-time buyers save for a deposit.

A strong economy is the backbone of a strong nation. And a strong nation is built on people who work hard and want to get on life.

Mums and dads working round the clock to put food on the table and do the best they can for their children; grandparents who've saved hard all their lives to support their loved ones in times of need; sons and daughters who want to get on with their lives, get a job, get a home, and make something of themselves.

A Conservative Government after May 8 will carry on working through our plan to secure a brighter future for you, your family and for Britain.

Step by step, milestone after milestone. Last week it was a record increase in the minimum wage, today it's the rate of inflation. This Government has a long-term plan – and we're determined to make it work for you."

Reuters are reporting here that the rate of CPI inflation in the UK fell to zero for February.

This is the first time this measure has reached zero since it was introduced in 1988.

It is worth saying that the underlying rate is still probably about 1-2% because the fact that the inflation rate has fallen to zero in the twelve months to February includes the effect of a very large drop in fuel prices which will probably turn out to be a one-off combined with well-above average harvests which have driven down the price of food.

Nevertheless, provided that the inflation rate does not drop into significant negative territory - I suppose we would then have to start calling it the deflation rate - and since it is not associated with a collapse in demand (as deflation often was in the past, leading to recession) this means that we have price stability, which is a good thing for an economy and for most of the people of the UK.

If you were to ask me what I would least expect former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie to write in the Guardian, or anywhere else, "Vote Ed Miliband" would win and what he actually has written here would come a close second.

However, what he has written is worth reading.

I do not believe uncontrolled immigration is sustainable, or that everyone who raises concerns on the subject is a racist: I know that many members of ethnic minorities strongly support immigration control because they know only too well who will be the first to suffer if mishandling this issue leads to a loss of social cohesion.

I also think some of the things the coalition has done to close loopholes - such as shut down hundreds of bogus colleges which were basically Visa factories - were long overdue.

Nevertheless there are two sides to the immigration debate and we are in danger of going from not listening to one side, in the manner exemplified at the last election when Gordon Brown called Mrs Duffy a bigot for raising the issue, to not listening to the other side.

Monday, March 23, 2015

How ballistic would the Guardian, the BBC, and every female Labour politician from Harriet Harman down go if a white male Tory PPC behaved towards a female Asian Labour MP the way Labour candidate John Clarke has behaved towards his Conservative opponent Priti Patel?

The Cumbrian NHS Trusts said today that the bed shortage crisis at Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has passed.

An internal major incident was declared at the two hospitals last week when they reached capacity.

All non-elective surgery was cancelled and some patients had to be treated outside the county. The trust which runs the cottage hospitals in Workington, Cockermouth, Maryport and Keswick opened extra beds in Maryport to help with the crisis.

A hospitals spokesman said: “Thanks to the collective efforts of all partners working together, the trust has now been able to successfully reduce the need to maintain escalation beds which was putting a major strain on staff and the ability to safely run services.“Our focus now is on making sure that we learn from the events of the past week and also that partners continue to work effectively together so that all patients get the right care, at the right time and in the right place.”

“Patient care and safety has been our prime concern throughout this incident and we very grateful for everyone’s efforts over the past few days in resolving the immediate pressures facing hospital services.“The pressures seen in recent weeks are a reflection of the scale and nature of much wider challenges across the entire health and social care system in north Cumbria and we continue to work collectively to ensure that any patients waiting unnecessarily in an acute hospital bed, are moved to the right care setting sooner rather than later.“We would like to thank all staff for their effort and commitment during these particularly challenging times and also thank patients and the public for their co-operation.”

There are 45 days until Election Day - and it is still too close to call.

On Wednesday, the Chancellor delivered his sixth Budget – cutting income tax, helping savers, controlling spending, starting to reduce our debt and investing across the UK to secure a better future for you, your family and our country. The Budget shows that our plan is working – with the deficit down, growth up, jobs up, living standards rising, and debt starting to fall as a share of the economy. Against the odds, and the opposition, Britain is walking tall again, delivering financial security and peace of mind to Britain’s families. In this Budget we are:

·Cutting income taxes for 27 million hardworking people, and cancelling the planned rise in fuel duty – the longest freeze for over 20 years.

·A new Help to Buy ISA for first time buyers – so if you save up to £12,000 towards a deposit on a home, the government will contribute up to £3,000.

·Helping savers with a new Personal Savings Allowance, abolishing savings tax altogether for 17 million people to create tax free banking for almost the entire population.

·Committing to run a budget surplus and keep our debt share falling.

·Backing business and skills that will create full employment, and supporting pubs and brewers by cutting tax on beer and cider.

·Investing across the UK for a truly national recovery.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has confirmed that families are set to be £900 better off in 2015 than they were in 2010.

In 2010, we inherited an economy on its knees, reeling from Labour’s Great Recession that made our country poorer and hit family budgets across the UK. Confirmation from the IFS that families are set to be better off now than they were in 2010 is good news for hardworking taxpayers – it is more evidence that our long-term economic plan is delivering for Britain’s families. The job of repairing our economy may not be done but Britain is on the right track and we must not turn back

The choice has never been clearer: either sticking to the economic plan that’s delivering for families or returning to the economic chaos of the past. A vote for Labour or any other party would mean Ed Miliband in Number 10, propped up by the SNP, with the same old policies that got us into a mess before. The only way to get the competence of a strong Conservative team, working through this plan is to vote Conservative on 7th May.

'If you hold the balance, then you hold the power.'(Alex Salmond on Andrew Marr's Show yesterday)
The Conservative line on this (and let's be completely frank here, I'm not just sharing this because CCC are asking people to, but because I agree with the message and because the video clip is quite amusing) is given below:

Alex Salmond has just made clear why the SNP want to prop up Ed Miliband as Prime Minister:

A deal with the SNP - the party who want to break up Britain - is the only way Ed Miliband can get into power.And ordinary families would pay the price with higher taxes, more debt and weaker defences as the SNP try to scrap Trident, our independent nuclear deterrent.Help stop it by watching and sharing this video today - and by voting Conservative in May.Thanks,Conservative Campaign HQ

Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative Party, both at 4 Matthew Parker Street, London, SW1H 9HQ

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Last week chancellor George Osborne said that Manchester would be able to keep the business rates from new development.

I welcome this, and think it should be extended.

Stephen Haraldsen, the Conservative candidate to be MP for Copeland, and myself as the Conservative candidate to be Mayor of Copeland, have jointly written to the Chancellor asking that Copeland BC be similarly allowed to keep the business rates from New Nuclear Build.

That would enable Copeland to tackle some of the serious infrastructure issues which need to be resolved to regenerate our area and will particularly be needed if, as we hope, Nuclear New Build at Sellafield goes ahead. Transport and particularly the A595, parking facilities and the local health economy all need to be addressed - and not by ripping off the motorist.

Congratulations to Whitehaven & District Lions on a well organised and very successful "Swimarathon" at Whitehaven Pool this morning.

Each team taking part was raising money for two good causes: one nominated by the team and also the "James Burn Wish to Walk" campaign, which has been successful in raising the money to send him for his operation. James was there today and we wish him well.

Very warmest congratulations to everyone involved.

My son and I were very pleased to have the chance to take part: we completed 50 laps of the pool (100 lengths, e.g. 2.5 kilometres) in the hour available. Our other charity was the Pride of Cumbria Air Ambulance.

Next month on 19th April we will be taking part in a similar but even bigger challenge, the national Swimathon 2015 in aid of Marie Curie Cancer care.

Actually, although the possibility of a Labour majority government is terrifying enough, I find even more alarming the possibility of a Labour minority government dependent on the SNP and Greens for support.
Nevertheless this article is quite amusing ...

Hat tip to "@myhitehaven" on Twitter and the News and Star for the information that the Cumbria NHS authorities say the bed shortage is easing.

North Cumbrian University Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and Whitehaven's West Cumberland Hospital - declared an emergency on Thursday after running out of beds. Some patients had to be transferred to hospitals 75 miles away.

But the NHS group that controls much of the county's health spending - the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) - said the pressure on hospital beds has improved during the last 24 hours as officials worked to improve "patient flow" through the hospitals. A statement issued today said officials were still working to reduce the strain on the Trust’s ability to safely carry out its normal routine business while at capacity because patients were not "flowing through the system".

The statement said:

"All efforts are focussed on making sure this can happen as quickly as possible so that hospitals in Carlisle and Whitehaven can get back to routine business."Health and social partners are working to make sure patients who do not need to be in an acute hospital bed, are safely discharged to a more appropriate care setting or home with the right package of care."As usual, services are extremely busy over the weekend and the local health economy is calling on the public to play their part and use services appropriately."

The CCG urged people to:

* Think twice before using A&E or calling 999;

* To think about using other NHS services such as walk-in centres and pharmacies or call Cumbria Health on Call (out of hours) on 03000 247247 for advice on alternative urgent services available

* Stay away from hospital if they have any symptoms of sickness or diarrhoea.

A CCG spokesperson added:

“A tremendous effort has been made by all partners so that the Cumbrian health system can provide support and assistance during this incident and these efforts have shown the robustness of the system in coping in times such as these."However, this does not mean we are complacent and we will continue to work together to ensure the situation continues to improve.”

Iain Dale's latest seat by seat election prediction here is for the Conservatives and Labour to be on a dead heat with 275 MPs each, not enough Lib/Dem seats to form a coalition with either of those parties, and 42 SNP MPs.

I do hope this one does not come true, that would be a recipe for complete paralysis and probably a second general election in 2015, though that is much harder to arrange because of the fixed term parliament act.

But essentially the election is not pre-ordained, voters can choose how they vote.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

My son John and myself are gluttons for punishment this year. We are taking part in not one, but two Swimathons.

Tomorrow is the Whitehaven and District Lions club "Swimarathon" where people swim for an hour in teams to raise money for

1) a cause chosen by themselves, which in our case is the Pride of Cumbria Air Ambulance, and

2) the Whitehaven Lions contribution to the "James Burns Wish to Walk" campaign (which I was delighted to see has been successful)

And then on 19th April we will both be taking part in Swimathon 2015 in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. I will be swimming 5,000 metres for the twenty-second consecutive year. My son is going for a slightly easier but still substantial challenge.

Marie Curie is the leading charity providing care and support to over 40,000 people with a terminal illness and their families across the UK.

A £5 donation will pay for 20 bereavement booklets for young people who’ve lost someone close to them. And £35 will pay for a slide sheet, used by Marie Curie Nurses to move terminally ill people safely in bed.

I will put up a link to my son's giving page for Swimathon 2015 later, but you can sponsor me online with the money going straight to Marie Curie cancer care on my Swimathon 2015 giving page at:

I was travelling around the Copeland constituency and Borough today doing various things as part of the campaigns for the election of the next MP, Mayor, and councillors.

On the way home after my last stop I was driving through unlit sections of the A595 and was struck by two illusions. Neither was dangerous, both were interesting. I've titled this post with a reference to mental illusion because I'm convinced that each of these events was a cerebral phenomenon rather than an optical one.

The optical condition which set up both events is that it is a very dark night this evening. There was a moon visible ahead of me for part of the journey, but it was an almost perfect new moon, a very thin crescent which gave very little light. (Ironically much like the pictures others took of the eclipse yesterday which I did not see.) There were few if any stars visible, and the sections of the A595 I was driving on were in the countryside with no street lights, so it was extremely dark.

The first illusion was that on several occasions I fleetingly noticed the impression of a large black rectangular shadow, even darker than the sky, shaped like a bridge or the kind of gantry that motorway overhead signs are hung on. It was as if one was about to drive under such a gantry, but it was only an impression and vanished instantly.

The relevant part of the A595 has a very few long straight sections on which one could safely drive at or close to the national speed limit, but it also has some sharp bends which only a maniac would attempt to take at that kind of speed.

I don't need a satnav to find my way home along the A595, but because it was so dark, I had turned on my Satnav and was using the picture view to give myself a bit of extra warning of sharp bends ahead.

I realised after about the fourth time that I had the impression of a dark shape ahead, that it was almost exactly the same shape as the dark rim of the Satnav - a dark outline surrounding the bright image outlining the shape of the road ahead. The same shape - but much larger.

If the human eye had the ability which some cameras have, to magnify or shrink an image so as to "zoom in" on an area, there would have been a simple optical explanation for what I appeared to be seeing: persistence of vision. E.g. when returning one's gaze to the actual road ahead after a quick glance at it's image on the Satnav, there could be a transitory impression of the dark outline framing that image.

Now here is the interesting thing. Persistence of vision, which is what enables all films and video featuring movement to work, is normally a characteristic of the eye. However, the human eyeball does not have a "zoom" feature: our ability to change the focal length of the eye's lens is used purely for focussing.

But although the mark one eyeball does not have a "zoom feature," the brain does.

The most likely explanation of the illusion would appear to be that as I took occasional glances at the satnav to check for bends in the road ahead, the dark edge of the satnav was somehow retained in some recess of my short-term memory and occasionally briefly created a slight influence on the mental picture in my consciousness while I was looking at the road ahead.

The second "illusion" was an illustration of how much what we think we see is actually "filled in" by the brain.

I was approaching one of the villages in West Cumbria, on a stretch of the road where there was no illumination, and a vehicle came into view ahead of me, moving slightly more slowly. What I could actually see was just its' rear lights and outline: not much more than a shadow. The shape appeared significantly taller than a car, with a round top, and was evidently moving at about ten miles an hour below what would be the speed limit for a car, e.g. at the speed limit for a vehicle towing a trailer.

My mind interpreted this shape as a horse box being towed by a car which was hidden on the other side of it, the image generated in my head was that of a horse box. If I had turned off before reaching the lights of the village, and I had shortly afterwards been asked if I had seen any trailers on the A595 and what kind, I would have answered that I had seen a horse box.

Until the instant that the vehicle perhaps a hundred yards ahead of me reached an area illuminated by powerful street lights and came clearly into view. It was as if someone had flipped a switch and transformed the image in front of me on a projector screen: it wasn't a horse box at all, but a milk transporter.

It was the sort of moment when you experience what is normally hidden from you, namely how much of what we think we see is created by our brains filling in the details.

Friday, March 20, 2015

One thing we can all agree on is that, whoever wins the local and national elections on 7th May, local services will continue to be under massive pressure.

The present government inherited an enormous national debt which was still going up because of a massive deficit (with found pounds spent for every three coming in) and a country paying more on interest on the debt that the entire education budget.

The measures which have had half the country screaming about austerity have succeeded in reducing the deficit by a third in absolute terms or by half as a share of GDP but that it still too high and means that the national debt is still going up.

It's an argument for another day which of their plans will work, but I want to make the point that Osborne, Balls Alexander and every other political party with the faintest shred of claims to responsibility all agree that the present deficit is still unsustainable and needs to come down further. Which means money is not going to stop being tight and local council budgets will continue to be under massive pressure.

In that context, can Cumbria really afford to have seven major councils (county and six districts)?

I would say certainly not on the basis that all seven try to do everything for themselves. We really do not need seven finance departments, seven legal departments, seven IT departments, seven HR departments, and seven payroll systems, etc, etc, etc.

One possible response to this is to support what are called "Unitary Authorities" where you scrap both the existing county and district councils and set up one or more combined councils which provide all the services currently run at each tier. I absolutely do not rule out the possibility of supporting such a solution on the right basis - if an idea for a "West Cumbria" unitary council and an "East Cumbria" unitary replacing the present councils were to come forward I would probably back it. I didn't and currently still don't support the idea of one unitary council for the whole of Cumbria because I think the area is too geographically big, hard to get round, and diverse for one unitary council to work here. But we have to keep looking at options.

A less radical but potentially very helpful idea at least for the short term would be for councils to share services. There have been some early attempts for Copeland, Allerdale and Carlisle to agree on sharing services. I believe this needs to go much further.

There are a lot of services which can be provided more efficiently and cheaply by the councils of Cumbria working together than by all seven doing everything in-house. That way seven councils does not have to mean seven payrolls, seven property teams, seven HR departments and so on. Sone properly this will enable all the councils in Cumbria to work together to provide better services for all our residents and avoid the need to make more painful cuts.

Doing things the old way will no longer work. We need to work smarter and work together.

Dan Hannan MEP has put out another "Ici Londres" Youtube video making the argument on why we should support self-determination for the people of the Ukraine.

A surprising number of people in the West are all too ready to put all the blame on NATO and/or the EU for the problems in Ukraine. In one of today's papers there is a reference to the West "poking the Russian Bear" as if it was us sending B52 or Vulcan bombers to probe Russian airspace, rather than Putin sending Bear bombers over Cornwall and risking the safety of civilian aircraft. Or as if it had been a Russian airliner, rather than a Malaysian one with largely Westerners on board, shot down with the loss of three hundred innocent civilians including eighty children.

I did for about two seconds consider giving this post the title "Hell has officially frozen over yet again" because a person who was thinking about this in a lazy way, or trying to twist it, might suggest that Dan was defending the EU, which would have been most unusual.

I didn't use that title because if you watch and listen to the video below carefully, Dan isn't defending the EU. He's defending the right of the people of the Ukraine to settle their own destiny and applying exactly the same criteria that he often uses to criticise Brussels and the EU in an objective manner to Moscow and what the Russians regard as their empire.

Misty morning in Whitehaven - popped out a couple of times to see if I could spot the eclipse but although people in other parts of Cumbria such as Penrith appear to have seen it, there does not have been anything to see here. Of course, I would not have been looking directly at it if there were ...

Thursday, March 19, 2015

I dare say Ed Balls would complain vigorously if we described this as the most unlikely endorsement a Tory chancellor has ever had, but the following quote certainly does not appear consistent with any argument that yesterday's budget was a disastrously bad one ...

Stephen Haraldsen, Conservative candidate to be MP for Copeland, has commented on the situation in North Cumbria's hospitals as follows:

"The West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary are having trouble dealing with the volume and complexity of cases at the moment, struggling to get people well and out of hospital."Just last week the Government gave the trust an extra £3 million to treat more patients, on top of the extra £47 million they got last year."This major incident isn't the hospital's fault, but I hope they can work to sort it out as soon as possible so patients get the treatment they need."